CDs and DVDs

Brasero (CD/DVD burner)

Brasero is a CD/DVD burning application that is now part of the Gnome desktop (but can be used with any Ubuntu derivative). If not already installed:

sudo apt-get install brasero

Gnomebaker (CD/DVD burner)

Gnomebaker has been the default CD/DVD burning application for the Gnome desktop. If not installed:

sudo apt-get install gnomebaker

K3b (CD/DVD burner)

k3b (KDE Burn Baby Burn) is the default KDE CD and DVD burning utility included in Kubuntu, but can run well in Gnome. (Due to licensing requirements, mp3 capabilities must be installed separately as the libk3b6-extracodecs package). Install:

Recent versions of k3b have a bug that doesn't properly recognise normalize-audio. See these tips (or these tips) for a workaround.

Cdrecord troubleshooting

Cdrecord error 254

Note: The solution here has not been verified, and the problem may lie in a different module than cdrkit, such as libdvdread. This section is under construction.

The problem usually occurs when a large amount of data (around 3.5 GB or larger) is being written to a DVD-R. The wodim 1.11 (there seem to be no problems with older versions of wodim such as v1.9) and genisoimage packages from the cdrkit (or one of their dependencies) used by Debian-based distributions (including (K)Ubuntu) may be dysfunctional and may generate a message similar to "cdrecord error 254" error while burning using K3B. Alternately, any file(s) written above the 3.5 GB limit may be improperly written to DVD.

This effectively limits DVD-R burning to less than 3.5 GB. One suggested solution entails installing a current copy of cdrtools manually. One location for obtaining cdrtools .deb packages is this Launchpad PPA repository. Download and install the cdrecord .deb package for your OS type (i386 or amd64). mkisofs and cdda2wav should be installed as well, as indicated here.

Solution: Do not use the cdrecord (which includes wodim) for writing DVD disks that contain more than 3.5 Gb data. Instead, use growisofs:

k3b -> Burn -> Writing app: growisofs -> Writing mode: DAO

this has successfully allowed me to burn DVDs with more than 3.5 Gb data.

Alternatively, obtain and use the older version of k3b/cdrecord/wodim (v1.9), such as used in the Lucid Lynx. This is not an easy solution to implement other than by installing a standalone Lucid Lynx OS in its own small partition.

Cdrecord has no permission to open the device error

If you receive the "cdrecord has no permission to open the device" error while burning using K3B, open a terminal and type:

sudo chmod 777 /dev/scd0

Note: replace /dev/scd0 with your own device, e.g. /dev/sr0.

Note: chmod 777 is the universal option for granting full permission to a folder. The 777 mask indicates that read, write, and execute permission is given to all users.

DVD Playback Capability

libdvdcss

To play encrypted DVDs, the libdvdcss2 package is essential. libdvdcss2 is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother about the decryption. More information about this package can be found at VideoLAN.

You can install libdvdcss2 as a 64-bit .deb package without installing the Medibuntu repositories:

libudf

Many newer DVDs use the UDF filesystem. To play them properly, also install libudf:

sudo apt-get install libudf0

Other tools are useful:

sudo apt-get install udftools libudf-dev

K9copy (DVD Ripper)

K9copy is the free open source DVD backup, copying, compression, and authoring utility that requires libdvdcss. For other info, see this or this guide. You can easily create MPEG-2. MPEG-4, or DVD videos with this utility.

sudo apt-get install k9copy

See this section for tips on using k9copy with mencoder and NTFS DVDs.

Tips: At times you may not be able to copy your DVD directly from DVD to DVD. This may because you have a small imperfection in the DVD, or because the DVD was initially created with a non-standard burning method. There are two methods that can help solve this problem:

Copy the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders from your original DVD directly to your hard drive. Then use k9copy to burn a DVD directly from these hard drive folders.

Use k3b (or Gnomebaker) to copy an .iso image from the original DVD to your hard drive. Then use k9copy to extract from the hard drive .iso image and then burn a DVD directly from it.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a GPL-licensed open source tool for converting DVD to MPEG-4 (iPod format) that is an alternative to k9copy. (It can handle many DVDs that k9copy cannot.) Note that Handbrake supports X264/H.264 and MP4 encoding but no longer supports the XVID video codec. It uses the .MP4/.M4V or .MKV containers, but no longer supports the .AVI container. However, it uses a streaming algorithm that (while slower than other methods) is compatible with a large variety of encryption techniques. (Following "ripping" from a DVD, the resulting .MP4 or .MKV file can be converted to other formats, such as .AVI with XVID, using these suggestions.) Installation is from the developmental PPA archive.

Acidrip

Acidrip is a DVD backup/copy program, written in GTK-based perl, that uses the Mplayer and Mencoder video/audio processing and conversion tools (and therefore yields the best quality DVD rips to an .AVI file with XVID video, for example). See the website for installation and official documentation. Install:

sudo apt-get install acidrip

DVD Fab (DVD Ripper)

DVD Fab is the favoured DVD backup tool for today's DVD encryption methods. It must be run in Wine (since it is a Windows application). It comes as a fully featured 30-day trial, but see these instructions for fine-tuning the trial period.